2013-2014 Curriculum and Schedule Plan

It seems that a LOT of people are considering the jump into homeschool lately.  So I've been

getting a lot of questions about what we're planning for the next school year.  I figured, instead of typing from scratch the answer everytime, I should save it somewhere.  And why not here, where I can just refer people and others that may not know me can get ideas as well!  Our school year is much more structured then the summer, though we do school year round.  I'll post about summer school later.  In our family, we have put in order of importance - spiritual growth, worldly knowledge, and housework.

Each day we start with devotional, all of the children participate regardless of age. We start with prayer and the pledge of allegiance. Then I read aloud from the scriptures for 15 minutes. We rotate through the books (Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, Pearl of GreatPrice, Old Testament, and New Testament). Then we work on their memorizationboxes. To finish out our group part of devotional, I read for 10 minutes from whatever novel we're reading as a family.  Finally, the kids that can read do personal scripture study and record their thoughts in their scripture journal. 

 

Rachel is now five and so excited to officially start school.  The state considers her a Kindergartener. Currently, we're finishing up her alphabet - recognizing the letters and knowing their sounds. We just use flash cards and StarFall.com. Once she has that down, we're going to start using Learning to Read Using the Book ofMormon, Vol. 1 and The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. The BoM teaches by memorizing sight words and Ordinary teaches phonics. BoM will count as her personal scripture time each day at the end of devotional. She'll also be starting Saxon math (grade K).

Rose is ten and considered a 5th grader. This fall she'll be starting Saxon math (6/5) and Learning Language Arts Through Literature (PurpleBook). I like LLATL because it rolls all the L.A. lessons into one course. She's also supposed to take an online tech class called Mobile Apps forBeginners. But she'll only be able to take that if we stay in Utah through an online charter school called My Tech High. If we move to Kansas (waiting to hear back on Dad's application), she won't be able to take that.

Rebekah will be 13 and considered to be in the 7th grade. She will be taking Saxon math ( 8/7 w/ PreAlgebra), LLATL (Green Book), and BYU-Independent Study (US History Part 1 & 2). If we stay in Utah, she'll also be taking a Robotics LEGO course through My Tech High.

All of our school age kids do science and history together.  Science is done 3x a week and history is daily.  We're using Real Science-4-Kids(Astronomy) and Story of the World (Vol. 1, Ancient Times) next year. I really would like to try the Latter Day School's Family School program. But it's a bit spendy ($500 per year) and you still have to purchase Story of the World, math and language arts. But the idea of teaching all of my children together is very appealing. Not to mention it was put together by an LDS group that runs a private school based on gospel principles in the Provo area. And everyone that has used it raves about it.

They also study Mandarin through Rosetta Stone, are learning to play piano with the LDS church's keyboard course, and we have a family pass to the local pool that we frequent several times a week. We have an hour and 15 minutes of reading time each day. Forty-five minutes is spent reading literature that I assign (I use lists from Simply Charlotte Mason, The Well Trained Mind, and Thomas Jefferson Ed). Thirty minutes is free reading.  The girls can do their individual lessons in any order they like.  We typically do the group lessons right before or after lunch.  After lunch and group lessons, we work together to get the house in order.  We also do another quick pick-up right before bed so that everything is ready for the next day.

UPDATE:  Doesn't look like Dad got the job in Kansas, so we'll be sticking with MTH for the school year.  Yay!  We changed Rebekah's history, though.  Instead of using BYU Independent Study for American History, we're going to use a combination of two programs.  We're going to do history through literature with Beautiful Feet's Early American and World History Jr. High Pack in conjunction with lapbooks from Homeschool in the Woods' Time Travelers New World Explorers bundle.

Reboot!

I am so happy to announce that we are going to start homeschooling again this year!  After two years of dealing with the public schools - I am VERY happy to be bringing the girls back home.  Hopefully, we will never return to the public school system.  Unfortunately, we are going to have to use K12 again.  We don't have the money to buy any curriculum.  But I really want the girls home.  We are using Alpine Online this year.  They will let us use Saxon Math and Rosetta Stone Online, instead of K12 for math and Chinese.  Unfortunately, we'll still have to do the K12 language arts.  My plan is to test the girls every unit.  If they can pass it, skip the unit.  Hopefully, that will give us a lot more flexibility.

K12 Groove

So, our K12 language arts programs for the girls arrived last Monday and we were able to start class on Tuesday.

Rose is in the second grade and her language arts program is very straight forward. It is also very time consuming for me, as I have to be with her for every second of her lesson. It is a similar situation with her math – simple and straightforward, but I have to sit next to her and do it all with her. In total, her lessons take one and a half to three hours each day (depending on her attitude), not counting preparation time.

Rebekah’s in the fifth grade and her lessons are much more involved, taking a lot more preparation time. Thankfully, she is able to do several of her lessons, including math, on her own with my just checking over her work and answering the occasional question. This is good for two reasons. One, it means she can be completing part of her lessons on her own while I work with Rose. Secondly, it enables her to work at a faster rate. This is especially good because she is repeating 4th grade language arts. So she has double lessons in LA everyday so that she can start 5th grade LA in February and be caught up by the end of the school year.

I spend each evening with their books, reading through the lesson plans online, gathering materials, writing out Rebekah’s assignments to do on her own, and any other prep work that needs to be completed.

Our daily schedule is pretty straight forward. We get up early and have breakfast, then get dressed and start chores. At 8:30am, whether chores are done or not, we start school. When we’re finished (usually before lunch), the girls finish their chores and then have free time.

Now that we’ve had a week to get our language arts and math schedules down, we are ordering our science curriculums and will add them on when they arrive. I hope to add on history, art, Mandarin and some sort of sports later in the year.

Books, books and more books!

Today I am going to the library to pick up several books I’ve put on hold on different ways to homeschool. My library had a pretty lousy selection on such books (only 6!), but it at least gives me a place to start. As I read, I will comment here on things I like or dislike. Once I’m done, I’ll also add a full review of each book at Goodreads.com (I love that site).

I’m having a tough time finding a science curriculum for the girls. At 2nd and 5th grade, I don’t want a curriculum that focuses on only one science field. I’d much rather have some sort of curriculum that covers lots of types of science throughout the year. I’d also like to have something that I can do the basic lesson and experiments with both girls at the same time, but it has an option to go more in depth for my soon to be 5th grader. Suggestions would be very helpful.

I could also use some help finding some decent priced vendors for children’s videos, literature and music in Chinese. We have Rosetta stone and books to teach the girls basic vocabulary and how to write the characters. But we want something for them to listen to, watch or read to give them extra exposure to the language.

And may I say - homeschool curriculums are Expensive! I am very thankful for sites like Amazon, Ebay, Half.com, Learning Things, and Homeschool Classifieds (among others) that help me find the supplies I need for cheaper! If you know of other sites with good deals, please send them my way!